Thursday, September 25, 2008

By Peggy HarrisTHE ASSOCIATED PRESSLITTLE ROCK -- An Arkansas commission studying ways to reduce global warming tentatively endorsed a ban Thursday on new coal-fired power plants, saying a proposed $1.5 billion facility in Hempstead County shouldn't open until at least 2020.

The preliminary proposal would allow the John W. Turk Jr. plant near Fulton to open eight years later than planned, when new "sequestration" technology presumably would be available to capture harmful carbon dioxide emissions and store them in the ground. The plant could open sooner if the technology becomes available.

Under the proposal, the $1.3 billion Plum Point plant being built near Osceola could open as planned in 2010 but operators would have to retrofit the plant with the new anti-pollution technology once it becomes available.

Any other new coal-fired power plants in Arkansas would have to have the new technology when they open.

Currently, sequestration is not in use at any commercial power plant in the country. But the new technology is among the many innovations being discussed nationally and worldwide to reverse global warming.

State Rep. Kathy Webb, who chairs the Governor's Commission on Global Warming, said the draft proposal was one of about 50 the group has analyzed over the last several months with the help of consultants. The panel expects to have its final recommendations in a report to Gov. Mike Beebe by Oct. 31. Legislators could consider the measures when they meet in regular session next year.

Webb, D-Little Rock, said the proposed ban has been among the most controversial of the draft recommendations.

Coal-fired power plants and automobiles are the leading producers of carbon dioxide, the chief culprit of global warming. They also are a primary generator of electricity in the U.S. and considered essential to economic growth.

Commission members from the energy industry Thursday voiced opposition to the proposed ban.

Gary Voight, chief executive of Arkansas Electric Cooperative Corporation, said scrapping plans for new plants would mean using "dirtier" inefficient plants that produce more pollution and fail to meet consumer demand.

He said a ban would effectively make it more difficult for utilities to produce electricity economically and free up more money to invest in energy-efficient technology. In addition, Voight said, the Arkansas Public Service Commission has already imposed conditions on Southwestern Electric Power Co. to address pollution at the planned 600-megawatt plant in Hempstead County.

"This is a bad plan. It's retroactive regulation," said Voight, whose cooperative plans partly own the SWEPCO plant. "The commission has already ruled that SWEPCO must evaluate all carbon sequestration and capture technologies as available in the future so this (proposal) is pointless. It's a waste of time, and we should all vote against it and get it off the table."

Other commissioners spoke of the seriousness of global warming and the need to take strong action.

"This is what Congress is talking about. This is what a lot, a lot of scientists are concerned about. New coal plants, we're talking about moratorium until sequestration," said Art Hobson, a physics professor at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville.

Commissioner Kevin Smith, the former state senator from Stuttgart, said without a moratorium Arkansas could become "the new Pittsburgh -- not the Natural State." And commissioner Rob Fisher, executive director of The Ecological Conservation Organization, said the proposal was the most important recommendation the panel could make.

"If we don't pass this option, everything else we do is pointless," he said.

The commission endorsed the recommendation by a vote of 11-10.

Kacee Kirschvink, a spokeswoman for SWEPCO, said the Turk plant would be one of the cleanest coal plants in North America. She said it would use "ultra-supercritical" technology that requires less fuel and produces less carbon dioxide. In addition, she said, the plant could be retrofitted for newer technology once it becomes available.

"It would not be good public policy to change the rules now after much planning and investment has been done to meet the energy needs of SWEPCO's customers," she said.

Shreveport, La.-based SWEPCO wants to open the plant in 2012 and has begun site work, while awaiting an air-quality permit from state environmental regulators. SWEPCO is a part of Columbus, Ohio-based American Electric Power Co.

David Byford, a spokesman for Plum Point developers Dynegy Inc., said the commission proposal was in the early stages and Dynegy might comment later after further study.

I bought the book for its intriguing subtitle: The Art of War for the Antiwar Movement. Ritter employs Sun Tzu’s The Art of War, General Carl von Clausewitz’s On War, the Marine Corps’ Warfighting, and firefighters’ core values as partial foundations for his critique of the peace movement. They are a bizarre combination for a book on peacemaking, but I found the book fascinating, and his text is only 99 pages long.

I say his text, because 26 pages reproduce the complete text of the U. S. Constitution (and the entire U.N. Charter is given too). That’s understandable, for the U.S. Constitution is the heart of the book as the repository, he believes, of U.S. core values. Here is a key passage from chapter 2: “I couldn’t think of a better core value for the progressive movement …than the ideals and values that are set forth in the Constitution….this document defines who we are what we are as a people. Its preamble, beginning as it does with the words, ‘We the People,’ provides both the certificate of ownership of the ideals and values for all Americans and the call for each American citizen to live up to the challenge of government ‘of the people, by the people, and for the people,’ as so eloquently stated by President Abraham Lincoln in his Gettysburg Address” (24).

In a later chapter, when he applies the warfighting sources listed in my first paragraph, he begins with the Constitution. What is to be our affirmation? The Constitution. The strategy, the operation, and the tactics of war and therefore of peace are or should be designed to defend the Constitution.

But how, more specifically does the Constitution apply to OMNI’s mission to promote world peace and justice? Article VI is our rock: “The Constitution, and the Laws of the United States…and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby….”

All treaties. All judges. All of the treaties via the United Nations signed and ratified by the U.S. are the law, are laws to be obeyed by judges. According to the Constitution, Article VI, the Charter of the United Nations, when it was ratified and signed as a treaty, was incorporated into the supreme law of the land which we are bound to uphold and defend. And what does the peacemaking Charter say? Read, for example, Chapter 1, Article 2, Sections 3 and 4: 3. “All Members shall settle their international disputes by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and security, and justice, are not endangered. 4. All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations.” Think of this.

I have met a few local peacemakers during the past seven years who have given up. But have we really tried? Have we made national and international peace and justice a high priority in our lives? Is it not the truth, for all of us, that we have barely begun to explore our peacemaking opportunities? The U.S. Constitution offers us a bold way to confront the contradictions of our imperial leaders. The nuclear resisters, the anti-nuclear weapons peacemakers—the Ploughshares Movement and others—have long known this. They have learned first-hand in court rooms how few judges have followed the law. And they have learned how few citizens have stepped forward to their side. To our disgrace, the peace movement has failed to bring to bear its potential force for peace through the Constitution/U.N. Charter, the law of the land. We have hardly begun to make the genuine struggle for peace and justice through the Constitution.

The U.S. Constitution has another profound potentiality for the peace movement. We begin shoulder to shoulder with all other U.S. citizens who revere it. Instead of standing outside the mainstream and trying to communicate and persuade, when we embrace the Constitution we are instantly on the inside. We are lovers of the Constitution first, all one, and our individual ideologies are second. Then we can sit down comfortably even with the Daughters of the Revolution, the famously conservative DAR. In TMN (9-14-08) a description of the aims of the DAR, who are celebrating Constitution Week, presents nothing objectionable: defending the Constitution, studying the Constitution, inalienable right of liberty, self-government by We, the People. With these values foregrounded we are all conservatives, looking to the past for our core values. Conversation, framed by mutual admiration for the Constitution, can begin without preconceived barriers.

By Constitution DAY 2009 I hope we will be prepared to present OMNI’s CONSTITUTION WEEK AND DAY. One significant and very relevant action could be the assessment of the new president of the United States. If Sen. McCain is in office, then we can tally the extent to which and ways by which he has continued Pres. Bush’s behavior. If Sen. Obama then we can likewise tally whether and how he has reversed Pres. Bush’s regime. Will you volunteer to coordinate planning? Such a project is easy when you have a long lead time like this. (See below: Starting a Bibliography.) In preparation let’s have a Book Forum in January 2009 on the subject of Preventing Wars with Ritter’s book one of the books discussed. Here are two other possible books: Kim Michaels, The Art of Non-War, http://www.askrealjesus.com/litecommerce/cart.php?target=product&product_id=263&category_id=60 to order the book directly from the publisher, and Miriam Pemberton, ed., Lessons From Iraq: Avoiding the Next War, available at any book store. Send me other book suggestions, join the panel., and send ideas for OMNI’S CONSTITUTION DAY 2009. A Constitution-loving coordinator would be mighty welcome, to assist OMNI to take back our National DAYS for nonviolence, world peace, economic and social justice, human rights, and the land and species. We, the People for a CULTURE OF PEACE AND JUSTICE.

2008 Event at UofA:

University of Arkansas Professor to Discuss “Constitution Day”Professor Janine Parry, who teaches and researches American politics, state politics and gender and politics, will deliver a public talk entitled “Women, Men and Sex Discrimination in American Constitutionalism” from noon to 1 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2008, in Old Main 325. The lecture is sponsored by the UA department of political science as part of its annual recognition of “Constitution Day.” Cookies and punch will be served.

Resources to help you celebrate Constitution Day – the birthday of your government – featuring over 200 activities, lessons, books, DVDs and more from over ...constitutioncenter.org/ConstitutionDay/ - 13k - Cached - Similar pages -

Constitution Day (or Citizenship Day) is an American federal holiday that recognizes the ratification of the United States Constitution, and also recognizes ...en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_Day_(United_States) - 31k - Cached - Similar pages -

Constitution Day recognizes the ratification of the the United States Constitution. It is observed on September 17, the day the U.S. Constitutional ...constitutionday.wikispaces.com/ - 116k - Cached - Similar pages -

8. Constitution Day - September 17, 1787

On September 17, 1787, the 55 delegates to the Constitutional Convention held their final meeting. Only one item of business occupied the agenda that day, ...usgovinfo.about.com/blconstday.htm

Sunday, September 14, 2008

By ERIC LIPTONWASHINGTON — The Bush administration is pushing through a broad array of foreign weapons deals as it seeks to rearm Iraq and Afghanistan, contain North Korea and Iran, and solidify ties with onetime Russian allies.

From tanks, helicopters and fighter jets to missiles, remotely piloted aircraft and even warships, the Department of Defense has agreed so far this fiscal year to sell or transfer more than $32 billion in weapons and other military equipment to foreign governments, compared with $12 billion in 2005.

The trend, which started in 2006, is most pronounced in the Middle East, but it reaches into northern Africa, Asia, Latin America, Europe and even Canada, through dozens of deals that senior Bush administration officials say they are confident will both tighten military alliances and combat terrorism.

"This is not about being gunrunners," said Bruce S. Lemkin, the Air Force deputy under secretary who is helping to coordinate many of the biggest sales. "This is about building a more secure world."

The surging American arms sales reflect the foreign policy tides, including the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the broader campaign against international terrorism, that have dominated the Bush administration. Deliveries on orders now being placed will continue for several years, perhaps as one of President Bush's most lasting legacies.

The United States is far from the only country pushing sophisticated weapons systems: it is facing intense competition from Russia and elsewhere in Europe, including continuing contests for multibillion-dollar deals to sell fighter jets to India and Brazil.

In that booming market, American military contractors are working closely with the Pentagon, which acts as a broker and procures arms for foreign customers through its Foreign Military Sales program.

Less sophisticated weapons, and services to maintain these weapons systems, are often bought directly by foreign governments. That category of direct commercial sales has seen an enormous surge as well, as measured by export licenses issued this fiscal year covering an estimated $96 billion, up from $58 billion in 2005, according to the State Department, which must approve the licenses.

About 60 countries get annual military aid from the United States, $4.5 billion a year, to help them buy American weapons. Israel and Egypt receive more than 80 percent of that aid. The United States has also recently given Iraq and Afghanistan large amounts of weapons and other equipment and has begun to train fledgling military units at no charge; this assistance is included in the tally of foreign sales. But most arms exports are paid for by the purchasers without United States financing.

The growing tally of international weapon deals, which started to surge in 2006, is now provoking questions among some advocates of arms control and some members of Congress.

"Sure, this is a quick and easy way to cement alliances," said William D. Hartung, an arms control specialist at the New America Foundation, a public policy institute. "But this is getting out of hand."

Congress is notified before major arms sales deals are completed between foreign governments and the Pentagon. While lawmakers have the power to object formally and block any individual sale, they rarely use it.

Representative Howard L. Berman of California, chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, said he supported many of the individual weapons sales, like helping Iraq build the capacity to defend itself, but he worried that the sales blitz could have some negative effects. "This could turn into a spiraling arms race that in the end could decrease stability," he said.

The United States has long been the top arms supplier to the world. In the past several years, however, the list of nations that rely on the United States as a primary source of major weapons systems has greatly expanded. Among the recent additions are Argentina, Azerbaijan, Brazil, Georgia, India, Iraq, Morocco and Pakistan, according to sales data through the end of last month provided by the Department of Defense. Cumulatively, these countries signed $870 million worth of arms deals with the United States from 2001 to 2004. For the past four fiscal years, that total has been $13.8 billion.

In many cases, these sales represent a cultural shift, as nations like Romania, Poland and Morocco, which have long relied on Russian-made MIG-17 fighter jets, are now buying new F-16s, built by Lockheed Martin.

At Lockheed Martin, one of the largest American military contractors, international sales last year brought in about $6.3 billion, or 15 percent of the company's total sales, up from $4.8 billion in 2001. The foreign sales by Lockheed and other American military contractors are credited with helping keep alive some production lines, like those of the F-16 fighter jet and Boeing's C-17 transport plane.

Fighter jets made in America will now be flying in other countries for years to come, meaning continued profits for American contractors that maintain them, and in many cases regular interaction between the United States military and foreign air forces, Mr. Lemkin, the Air Force official, said.

Sales are also being driven by the push by many foreign nations to join the once-exclusive club of countries whose arsenals include precise, laser-guided missiles, high-priced American technology that the United States displayed during its invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan.

In the Persian Gulf region, much of the rearmament is driven by fears of Iran.

The United Arab Emirates, for example, are considering spending as much as $16 billion on American-made missile defense systems, according to recent notifications sent to Congress by the Department of Defense.

The Emirates also have announced an intention to order offensive weapons, including up to 26 Black Hawk helicopters and 900 Longbow Hellfire II missiles, which can knock out enemy tanks.

Saudi Arabia, this fiscal year alone, has signed at least $6 billion worth of agreements to buy weapons from the United States government — the highest figure for that country since 1993, which was another peak year in American weapons sales, after the first Persian Gulf war.

Israel, long a major buyer of United States military equipment, is also increasing its orders, including planned purchases of perhaps as many as four American-made coastal warships, worth $1.9 billion.

In Asia, as North Korea has conducted tests of a long-range missile, American allies have been buying more United States equipment. One ally, South Korea, has signed sales agreements with the Pentagon this year worth $1.1 billion.

So far, the value of foreign arms deliveries completed by the United States has increased only modestly, reaching $13 billion last year compared with an average of $12 billion over the previous three years. Because complex weapons systems take a long time to produce, it is expected that the increase in sales agreements will result in much greater arms deliveries in the coming years. (All dollar amounts for previous years cited in this article have been adjusted to reflect the impact of inflation.)

The flood of sophisticated American military equipment pouring into the Middle East has evoked concern among some members of Congress, who fear that the Bush administration may be compromising the military edge Israel has long maintained in the region.

Not surprisingly, two of the biggest new American arms customers are Iraq and Afghanistan.

Just in the past two years, Iraq has signed more than $3 billion of sales agreements — and announced plans to buy perhaps as much as $7 billion more in American equipment, financed by its rising oil revenues.

Lt. Col. Almarah Belk, a Pentagon spokeswoman, said that making these sales served the interests of both Iraq and the United States because "it reduces the risk of corruption and assists the Iraqis in getting around bottlenecks in their acquisition processes."

Over the past three years, the United States government, separately, has agreed to buy more than $10 billion in military equipment and weapons on behalf of Afghanistan, according to Defense Department records, including M-16 rifles and C-27 military transport aircraft.

Even tiny countries like Estonia and Latvia are getting into the mix, playing a part in a collaborative effort by 15 countries, mostly in Europe, to buy two C-17 Boeing transport planes, which are used in moving military supplies as well as conducting relief missions.

Boeing has delivered 176 of these $200 million planes to the United States. But until 2006, Britain was the only foreign country that flew them. Now, in addition to the European consortium, Canada, Australia and Qatar have put in orders, and Boeing is competing to sell the plane to six other countries, said Tommy Dunehew, Boeing's C-17 international sales manager.

In the last year, foreign sales have made up nearly half of the production at the California plant where C-17s are made. "It has been filling up the factory in the last couple of years," Mr. Dunehew said.

Even before this new round of sales got under way, the United States' share of the world arms trade was rising, from 40 percent of arms deliveries in 2000 to nearly 52 percent in 2006, the latest year for which the Congressional Research Service has compiled data. The next-largest seller was Russia, which in 2006 accounted for 21 percent of global deliveries.

Representative Berman, who sponsored a bill passed in May to overhaul the arms export process, said American military sales, while often well intended, were sometimes misguided. He cited military sales to Pakistan, which he said he feared were doing more to stoke tensions with India than combat terrorism in the region.

Travis Sharp, a military policy analyst at the Center for Arms Control and Nonproliferation, a Washington research group, said one of his biggest worries was that if alliances shifted, the United States might eventually be in combat against an enemy equipped with American-made weapons. Arms sales have had unintended consequences before, as when the United States armed militants fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan, only to eventually confront hostile Taliban fighters armed with the same weapons there.

"Once you sell arms to another country, you lose control over how they are used," Mr. Sharp said. "And the weapons, unfortunately, don't have an expiration date."

But Mr. Lemkin, of the Pentagon, said that with so many nations now willing to sell advanced weapons systems, the United States could not afford to be too restrictive in its own sales.

"Would you rather they bought the weapons and aircraft from other countries?" he said. "Because they will."

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

PEACEFUL TOMORROWS FOR 9/11 PATRIOT DAY 2008 In search of a nonviolent response to 9/11.Patriot Day commemorates the victims of the 9-11 attacks on the WTC, but it was also used to justify the illegal invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, and to subvert our Constitution in the Patriot Act and other anti-democratic laws. In contrast, the Indonesian response to the Bali bombings was to search, find, and prosecute the criminals. India endures almost daily political or religious violence, recently even an entire train burned and the passengers murdered, but without accusing and attacking Pakistan or some country the other side of the planet, and without dismantling India’s democratic institutions and protections. In contrast to the Bush Administration's invasions and permanent world "war against terrorism," September Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows was created by families opposed to the vengeance of the Afghanistan invasion and the self-maiming of the Patriot Act. They mourned the death of innocent victims here and everywhere, including those who died at the hands of our military and militaries allied with the US. (CD)OMNI’s National DAYS project is one more series of actions building a CULTURE OF PEACE in NWA. Because a public and their leaders are formed in numerous ways, including by institutions, we must change them too. OMNI’s Culture of Peace program (derived from the UN, and shared with Peaceful Tomorrows, the AFSC and FCNL, and many other peace organizations) offers an alternative, and a plan. It is long-range, and it is multifarious, but it is nonetheless clear, composed as it is of specific alternatives to the pervasive warfare state. And of course if we do nothing the totalitarians will win. So we are affirming DAYS that support nonviolent peace, social and economic justice, human rights, and the environment, and offering alternatives to Days that do not. Join OMNI and choose a DAY or DAYS for peaceful tomorrows.Dick Bennett

Friday, September 5th 2008

9/11 Families and the Military Commission Trials by John Leinung Whoever Says by Siena Faughnan Speech at Westchester Hispanic Coalition Press Conference by Valerie Lucznikowska Papers Please: What the Real ID Act Means for American Values by Valerie Lucznikowska Global Peace Day by John Titus Shaping the Legacy of 9/11]eligious Faith, Torture, and Our National Soul9/11 - Evangelicals for Human Rights, the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, and Mercer University, host a 2-day national summit on torture in Atlanta, GA, featuring the nation's top thinkers and leaders in the anti-torture community. Al Filipov Peace & Justice Forum9/20 - (Time TBD)Each September, the forum sponsors a nationally known speaker on topics of peace and justice in the Christian-Judeo tradition. The forum is a tribute to Al Filipov who was killed on 9-11-01, when Flight 11 crashed into the World Trade Center. Al believed that an individual, ac! ting on principles, can make a profound difference in the world.

Anniversary of the Bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima Remembering the London Bombings PT Member attends Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan by Terry Rockefeller Peaceful Tomorrows members visit Groton Middle School and contribute to The Worlds Largest B! ook on Peace by Terry Greene & Anthony Aversano In Remembrance of April 19, 1995 - Oklahoma City International Day of Reflection on the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda

PT member appears on WBAI's "Heart of Mind" to speak about PT's work with LAONF U.S. to televise Guantanamo trials to 9-11 families by Jane Sutton Stonewalk, Korea PT Members appear in "Finding Our Voices" Terry Kay Rockefeller on PRI's "The World" Democracy Now: Protesters in Berlin For German troops Out of Afghanistan Anniversary of the Bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima

A Letter to the Hibakusha on the 63rd Anniversary of the Bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima

August 6th and 9th mark the passing of 63 years since the atomic bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima by the United States of America. There remain many men and women in Japan, the Hibakusha, who are themselves survivors or are the subsequent generations who bear the scars of that horror, who long for peace in the world and the banning of nuclear weapons by all the world's powers. Yet still they wait...

LaOnf 2008: A Project for Promoting Nonviolent Solutions in Iraq

The Iraqi civil-society organization LaOnf (which means no violence in Arabic) is a network of Iraqi activists building a nonviolence movement to resist occupation, terrorism and corruption in Iraq.

Peaceful Tomorrows is launching a Solidarity Campaign in support of LaOnf. You can get involved by screening of a documentary on LaOnf in your home or community!

Click Here for More Info and to Search for a Screening in Your Area

Click Here to Sign Up to Host a Screening

Click Here to Go to the Host Campaign Resources Webpage

Read More ;

"N" was a schoolteacher in Iraq, and was instrumental in setting up 121 Contact, a program in which American and Iraqi children exchanged emails, to give a face to those living in war as well as allowing the students the opportunity to see how their similarities far outweighed their differences. "N" is currently residing in the U.S.

First Anniversary a poem by "N," the Baghdad schoolteacher in NYC

Away from Iraq for the first time. Away from my room, its corners that I adore where I left my small dreams on my pillow. Where I left my sleep and my peace on my bed... maybe forever.

9/11 Family Members Sign Letter Decrying Politicization of Guantanamo Military Commissions(More...)

Peaceful Tomorrows supports the John Adams Project: Standing up for Justice in the Military Commissions Proceedings. (More...)

OMNI SEEKS A WORLD FREE OF WAR AND THE THREAT OF WAR, A SOCIETY WITH LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL, A COMMUNITY WHERE EVERY PERSONS POTENTIAL MAY BE FULFILLED, AN EARTH RESTORED. GRASSROOTS NONVIOLENCE, WORLD PEACE, HUMAN RIGHTS, SOCIAL and ECONOMIC JUSTICE, ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARDSHIP PROTECTING SPECIES AND THE EARTH. These are OMNI's ideals. Read our brochure and our newsletters, attend our Steering Committee, become an active member of one or more of our committees, participate in our dozens of activities to see how these broad goals are realized in action. There is nothing vague about Building a Culture of Peace.Dick Bennettjbennet@uark.edu(